


The Love of Good Men

by DullYellowEye



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Tin Man (2007)
Genre: F/M, HP: EWE, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-02
Updated: 2012-01-02
Packaged: 2017-10-28 17:57:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/310576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DullYellowEye/pseuds/DullYellowEye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In search of a change, Harry and his godson Teddy travel to Kansas in the hope of a new start. A friendly waitress and a travel storm later and they're in for a lot more than they bargained for. Follows the plot line of Tin Man with a few twists and turns of my own thrown in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Love of Good Men

Harry, Ron, Hermione and most of their school year all went back, after the defeat of Voldemort, for an ‘eighth’ year of study. In fact, the entire school was held back a year. There were so many students whose parents had pulled them from education for the year and the teaching had been such that even those who’d been there hadn’t learnt much. So the ‘second years’ were in the same class as all the new firsties and Harry’s year was stuck with an extra year of school.

Harry didn’t do particularly well after the final battle. Whilst his body and magic had rebounded relatively quickly, emotionally he hadn’t done so well. In his nightmares he saw phantoms of his parents, Sirius and Remus, swooping in on him to kill him, he saw flashes of deadly green, he saw that childish, abused part of Voldemort’s soul that had been at King’s Cross.

When it seemed he was on the brink of a mental break down, Ginny had forced herself back into Harry’s life. And he had leant on her completely. Ron and Hermione each had their own problems to deal with and dealt with them whilst leaning on each other. They couldn’t cope with Harry as well. And so Ginny took the brunt of his every doubt and guilt ridden sob. She became Harry’s everything for his entire eighth year and it was probably mostly thanks to her that he was able, at the end of it, to stand on his own two feet again.

What he was not able to do, however, was face the British Wizarding Community. When Rita Skeeter had appeared to ask a few questions at his graduation, Harry’s infamous temper had flared badly. Not even Pansy Parkinson - one of the only remaining ‘Year Eight’ Slytherins - had the nerve to laugh at Harry for it. In that respect, Harry missed Malfoy, who had never returned to Hogwarts.

When Ginny had faced Harry and asked him what had happened, he had told her quite plainly that he refused to cope with the press and his over enthusiastic fans. He had taken her hands and explained his dream to her. It would be the two of them, and little Teddy, Remus and Tonks’ boy, and they would live in a large house somewhere in the country. They’d have Weasleys and Gryffindors and Luna over every weekend and go on occasional visits in to the closest village. They’d have children - two, three, however many Ginny wanted - and would live in blissful happiness for the rest of their days. Then Harry had pulled out an engagement ring and asked Ginny to marry him.

But Ginny had wept. She had kissed him again, and again, and told him that she loved him so, so much. But not that much. In whispers she had said she couldn’t live that way. She needed action and movement. She needed a puzzle. She had been offered a placement as a reserve seeker on a professional quidditch team when she graduated. Ginny had kissed Harry one last time and said that she would not become her mother. Then she left.

Not long after that Andromeda Tonks had a heart attack. She fell down the stairs and broke her neck. And so, within two months of graduating, Harry found himself with no fiancée - or even girlfriend - and the sole custodian of an eighteen month old baby. For the next half a year Harry lived in Remus and Tonks’ little apartment, searching for a more appropriate home for him and Teddy and for his dream. Hermione and multitudes of Weasleys visited him and comforted him and tried to support him, but it was all too suffocating for Harry.

After their break up the next time Harry properly spoke to Ginny was at Teddy’s second birthday. Neither of them had found anyone else and he told her, simply, that his dream had changed.

“I can’t find that dream without you, Gin. All the houses I’ve looked at - I can’t help but thinking ‘would Ginny like it? Could she live here?’” Harry sighed and ran a hand down his face. “I know it’s stupid and we’re not together anymore and I should get over you, but I don’t know how.”

Ginny had reached across the seemingly endless distance between them and touched his shoulder. Suddenly she was so, so much closer to him. “Harry,” was all she said.

“So… so I’m going to go away,” Harry swallowed and looked away from her beseeching blue eyes. He looked across to where Teddy and his friends were playing with the wrapping paper of his presents. “In the morning Ted and I are going to America. I’ll owl you and Ron and Hermione and the others every now and then to let you know I’m alive, and maybe one day I’ll come back. But until I’ve moved on completely with my life, I can’t stay here. Not without your support. You know this.”

Ginny sighed and patted his shoulder heavily. “I do know, Harry. I know how much you love us - all of us. And I know that without the distraction of Voldemort you need to start out small. I love you, but you know that it won’t be enough for me and my temperament to live in your dream. Within a year, maybe two, I’d hate you and we’d have a marriage and Teddy, as well as another baby probably to worry about. I don’t want to hate you.”

Harry wrapped strong arms around Ginny’s compact, warm body and allowed himself a moment of weakness. Then he let her go, wiped away the tears and smiled weakly at her. “I love you, Gin. You’ll always be my first love.”

“You’re mine too, Harry.”

Then Teddy had toddled over and tugged on Harry’s trouser leg in a silent demanded to be lifted up. Teddy had scrunched up his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them again they were Ginny’s blue, his skin covered in freckles and his hair carrot-coloured. He smiled at her and she kissed his nose, causing him to scrunch it up again.

“Bye-bye,” Teddy said. “Bye-bye Auntie Ginny.” Then he wriggled in Harry’s arm and waved at all of the other toddlers and Weasleys. “Bye-bye!” he shouted, getting their attention.

Harry grinned tiredly and Ginny knew, then, that he had never expected her to get together with him again. He explained to everyone the plan as Teddy walked back over to his friends and said goodbye to all of them. Mr and Mrs Thomas, the only muggles there, did not understand properly why Harry was leaving the country, but wished him well and left with their twins. The other parents of Teddy’s friends had known Harry long enough to get the gist of what he was saying and promised not to tell the press. The news would get out eventually, but they wouldn’t spread the word.

But the hardest goodbyes to make were to those Harry loved best. Ron and Hermione were so goddamned understanding that the three of them were in tears by the time they were done. Luna had nodded and smiled in her dreamy way, telling him politely that Kansas was pretty this time of year. The other Weasleys took the news in the same way that war-weary soldiers who’d seen too much death did. They were happy that Harry was moving on, but upset to lose another familiar face. Neville’s new found confidence didn’t leave him as he said farewell.

“It was a goodbye party,” he said as the others left.

“Yeah,” Harry said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Ted and I are leaving tomorrow morning. We’ve got a portkey to California at nine. I figured that we’d stay in orange county for a while, but since Luna recommends Kansas…” he trailed off and grinned. “It’s a different sort of adventure.”

Neville clapped him on the back. “Go save yourself, Harry. And don’t forget to stay in touch.”

Just as the door was closing behind him, Harry called out again to his friend, “Hey Neville!”

“Yeah,” the other boy said, poking his head back round the door.

“About Oliver… you should just tell the others. They love you, they’re not going to care that you’re gay.”

Neville blushed a bright red and spluttered, but caught Harry’s eye and saw that the other young man was being perfectly serious. He recovered himself enough to nod once in Harry’s direction and close the door behind him, still bright red in the face, leaving Harry chuckling to himself. Minutes later, Harry’s attention was caught by a shout outside his window. Opening it, he saw Neville on the street below.

“Thank you!” he called up and smiled brightly. Harry laughed out loud and waved, knowing that it would be at least a couple of years before he saw Neville again and probably longer than that. He’d miss him.

“Daddy,” Teddy drew his attention back to the apartment by tugging on his trouser leg. The toddler had called him ‘Daddy’ for as long as he could talk and, while Harry had protested at first, Andromeda had soon made it clear that it was precisely what Remus and Nymphadora would have wanted. Harry soon gave in and, now that Andromeda was gone, he was glad for it. Teddy needed some kind of family, just like Harry needed some kind of family.

“Zoom zoom,” the two year old insisted. “Zooooom!”

Chuckling, Harry placed a hand under each of Teddy’s arms and lifted the two year old, so he was at the same height as Harry. Then he swung his arms around him, ‘zooming’ the toddler around the room, causing the boy to giggle and scream excitedly. It was a game that Harry, as a little boy, had seen parents doing with their children and dearly wishing his Dad could do with him. But he didn’t even consider asking Vernon that. Now, in a way, he could make up for it, by playing with his son.

Teddy was going to be a little spoilt, Harry already knew. He couldn’t withstand Teddy’s puppy-dog eyes and he hated to see the boy cry. All he wanted to do was to give him the perfect childhood. That was part of the reason why they were moving. Harry wanted Teddy to be brought up out of the lime light, without all the hassle of being the Boy-Who-Lived-Twice’s adopted son. So they’d go to America where no one cared who he was, where Voldemort’s reign of terror was just an occasional news story from halfway across the world.

Once Teddy was settled for the night, it didn’t take long for Harry to pack up all of the things that mattered in a  wizard-space rucksack and settle onto the sofa, nursing his last British Firewhiskey. Harry didn’t linger late that night, though. He did not want to think too long on the past and the effects it had had on the present. He wanted to think more of the future and the joys it would bring. The brief exchange with Neville got Harry thinking - he needed someone new in his life, why couldn’t that someone be another bloke?

Without prompting his eyes went to the picture of Ginny that sat on his mantelpiece. It was taken the day she went into the twins’ shop for the first time; her face alight with mischief and excitement and joy - for herself and for her brothers. Harry wasn’t in love with her anymore. He hadn’t been since she had first said she couldn’t share his dream. He still loved her - always would - but you couldn’t be in love with someone who wasn’t in your life dream. After six months he was ready - more than ready - to move on.

Rolling the last of the alcohol on his tongue, Harry wondered what his new love might be like. Not blue eyes, not ginger and not really freckled. He didn’t want anyone who reminded him of Ginny. He didn’t need to be thinking about an ex-lover when he was starting off on a new relationship. He liked the idea of warm brown eyes, the colour of hot chocolate and autumn. Someone taller than he was, so he wouldn’t have to feel like the protector. But someone with vulnerabilities as well as strengths so Harry could be the hero sometimes too. An image of Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy danced into Harry’s mind and he laughed at himself for being so sappy.

Still, the idea of looking to men as well as women had been planted in Harry’s mind and that night when he went to bed, it was with the dream of waking up next to a man sometime in the near future that Harry went to sleep to. He found that, away from the prejudice of his Aunt and Uncle, the thought wasn’t half as disturbing as it might have been a year ago.

The next week was a thrilling, hectic one for Harry and Teddy. Getting up and ready to permanently leave the country for nine was much more difficult than the previous, laid-back evening had been and Teddy was being cranky about getting woken up so early as well. But they managed to make it to the ministry in time for their departure and arrived in California in good time, even though the route of six portkeys left Harry feeling more than a little nauseous. To top it off, Teddy was overjoyed by the method of travel. So, with an overexcited toddler in one hand and an oversized bag in the other, Harry booked them into the nearest hotel for the night and left Teddy playing with his new toys whilst he relaxed.

The next four days were a combination of travelling and putting up with Teddy’s whining. The two year old loved Magical transport, but hated any Muggle type. And, after promising three times that, as soon as they were settled and he’d put up the appropriate privacy wards, Harry would take Teddy for a broomstick ride, the promise lost its glamour and Teddy ignored it. And the more Teddy whined, the slower the progress across America got. Eventually, by mid-morning Saturday, Harry and Teddy had made it across the border and into Kansas.

At the end of a long morning’s whining Teddy was sleeping peacefully and Harry pulled up at a Diner in a small town. Hefting Teddy out of the car, carefully so as not to wake him, Harry carried the sleeping boy into the small café. Choosing the quietest corner he could, Harry sat for a long moment in silence, tilting his head back and closing his eyes, enjoying the silence and stillness for just a moment.

Then, as if on a timer - “Daaaddy!”

Harry sat up straight and reached over for Teddy, kissing his head and straightening him in his seat. “OK, little man, we’ve taken a short break from the long road. Do you need the toilet?”

“Want food,” Teddy said, pouting a little and causing Harry to smile.

“I thought you might. How does chicken and butterbean soup sound?”

“No!” Teddy’s predicted cry came, and Harry grinned wider. “Tomayo!”

Harry paused, thinking exaggeratedly. “Tomato? Really? Are you sure, because I’m sure they have some chicken and-”

“Tomayo!” Teddy said again, bouncing in his seat.

“Tell you what,” Harry said conspiratorially, “You can have tomato soup if you say tomato properly.”

“Tomayo,” Teddy insisted.

“Tomato,” Harry said right back, frowning sternly at the two year old.

Teddy frowned too, but it was in deep consideration rather than anger. He mouthed ‘tomato’ a couple of times before looking up. “Tomato,” he said quietly, then beamed with joy when he said it right.

Harry beamed right back and patted Teddy on the shoulder. “Well done, little man! For that I think I’ll let you have a banana afterwards too - if you behave while you’re eating.”

“So that’s one tomato soup for the kid, what about you, sir?” a voice said then, making Harry jump.

He turned to see one of the waitresses waiting, pen in hand. She wore a chequered blue and white apron, had bright blue eyes and dark, curly black hair. What interested Harry with her, though, was the scent of magic that wafted from her. She was practically glowing with it. Normally Harry could just about tell if someone was magical, but this girl - it was obvious! Blinking, he came back to the present and smiled winningly at her. “Just a bacon buttie, thanks. Oh, and a mug of coffee for me and some water for Ted.”

“No!” Ted cried out. “Want juice!”

Harry turned with tired determination. “You can have chicken and butterbean soup and have orange juice, _or_ you can have tomato soup with water. Which do you want?”

“Tomato,” Teddy said, and then, “Juice!”

“You have water and I’ll let you eat your banana yourself,” Harry bargained. Teddy was a terminally messy eater and he adored bananas - the two did not mix. And, unfortunately for Harry, Teddy loved eating on his own, without help.

Teddy considered for a moment, then nodded. Harry reached over, ruffled his hair, then added a banana to his order. The waitress, whose name tag proclaimed her to be ‘Dorothy G’ added it with a swish to the list and shot them another smile before taking their order to the kitchen. Harry chuckled as she was teased for fancying him. She shook her head in exasperation and rolled her eyes - which was a good sign. Harry could tell he was going to like her, but she was too naïve, too innocent for anything more.

She brought their lunches over with another smile, but didn’t hang around long enough for any more conversation to occur. Harry shrugged. He’d catch her after work. The amount of magic she had intrigued him and he wanted to know more about it. Luna had said to go to Kansas, and they had. But what they did now was entirely up to him and Teddy.

Luckily, Teddy was too tired from several days’ travelling to put up too much of a fuss about the food and ate it without spraying too badly. The banana he still managed to get everywhere, but a quick trip to the men’s was enough to sort that problem out, and the one at the other end. Harry wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about child advancement, but Teddy was generally quite good at letting him know when he needed the loo, so Harry didn’t hold the odd accident against him.

As they came out of the loo, Harry caught sight of ‘DG’ hanging up her apron.

“Hey,” he called, “Is there a park or something nearby that I can take Ted? He’s been trapped in a car for days now. I think he could do with some fresh air.”

DG considered for a moment, before saying, “If you promise you’re not a stalker or a psycho-killer-freak or anything, you can follow me back to the farm. It’s probably the safest - and freshest - part of town for him to play. And my mom and pop would love to coddle him for an afternoon. I don’t think they’ll ever forgive me for growing up,” she joked.

“That’s too bad,” Harry teased back. “And I thought having a two year old was the perfect disguise.”

She  laughed, and gazed at Teddy who was balanced on Harry’s hip, sucking his thumb and watching the exchange in silence. DG frowned. “I could’ve sworn his eyes were blue earlier…” she murmured to herself, then shook her head. “What’s ‘Ted’ short for?” she asked., and gestured out the back door out the staff exit to the car park.

“Theodore,” Harry said, grinning at her look of disbelief. “Seriously. He’s named after his granddad. You should’ve heard his mum and grandma’s name’s - Andromeda and Nymphadora. Remus was the only one who was allowed to call Nymphadora by anything other than her surname.”

“Remus?” DG asked, pausing by her bike. “No, wait. Tell me the whole story when we get to the farm. Then you won’t have to tell it twice. My parents are just as nosy as I am.”

Harry chuckled good naturedly. “It’s fine. Tonks, Remy and Ted all died over a year ago and Andy passed away six months ago. I know that doesn’t seem like a long time, but when you have a baby to take care of and an education to complete, it’s plenty enough time.”

“Sounds like you have one hell of a story there - what’s your name?”

“Harry - Potter. And this is Teddy Lupin.”

“Well, Harry, I’m DG - uh, short for Dorothy Gale. And my parents are-”

“Mr and Mrs Gale?” Harry said with a grin. “I know the drill. You may not fancy me, but to your parents I’m still some strange boy you’re bringing home.”

“Hardly a boy, but basically, yeah,” DG said with a grin. “And for the record, I don’t. Fancy you. You’re nice enough, but -”

“But it would be too much like dating your brother?” Harry interrupted again.

DG grimaced and nodded apologetically. “I don’t have a brother, but if I did…” she winced again.

Harry just grinned back. “It’s cool. I don’t fancy you either for the same reason. Well, sister rather than brother, but you know what I mean. So is that why you’re already taking me home to meet the parents?” he teased.

“What, because I’m hoping you might be some long-lost relative and this lonely farm girl’s a-reaching out to anyone and anything human in an attempt to connect with society?” DG shot back.

There was a long pause where they gazed solemnly at each other, before DG cracked and started chuckling to herself. “I just get a ‘good guy’ vibe off you,” she said. “Call me crazy.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Harry replied easily. He knew that it sounded teasing, but part of him was serious. No one had the kind of magic she did without having damn good instincts as to who was inclined towards ‘Dark’ and who towards the ‘Light’. “Do you mind if we continue this at your place before Teddy wakes up and gets all hyper?”

“Sure thing,” DG agreed easily, donning her helmet and swinging a leg over her bike.

Twenty minutes later and Harry was pulling a bouncing Teddy from his car seat and following DG up the steps of a classic Kansas-style farm house. “Are you going to be a good boy and behave yourself?” Harry asked Teddy quietly as DG called for her parents.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Teddy said with a mischievous grin.

“Oh, DG, you’re home. Your Pop is out by the wind turbines - a storm’s coming and the engine’s broke again and - oh, hello,” the harried looking woman stopped herself as she spotted Harry. “And who are you?”

“Mom, this is Harry Potter and his kid, Teddy… Lupin?” DG glanced at Harry and he nodded. “They’ve been travelling for a couple of days and-”

“Little Teddy needs somewhere to burn off all his excess energy?” Mrs Gale interrupted.

“Yes, ma’am,” Harry agreed quickly. “We’re sorry to intrude, but DG said this’d be the best place for some fresh air and a place for Teddy to play in safety.” Teddy bounced against Harry’s hip and hit his fist against Harry’s chest.

“Down!” Teddy demanded.

“Hey,” Harry scolded, turning his attention down to the two year old. “I thought you were going to play nice?”

Teddy pouted and bounced a couple of times more. “Down?” he asked, sucking in his top lip.

Mrs Gale frowned at Harry a little longer, then sighed and nodded. “Go on then, sugar. You go play. But stay on the porch - that’s the wooden bit.”

Teddy looked at her with a clear expression of ‘well duh,’ that startled laughter from the woman. Then the two year old wasted no more time in opening his little bag and pulling out his trucks, to run them up and down the ‘wooden bit’.

“Now Deege, you go help your father. Tell him I’ll be making lemonade for all of you. And tell him about our guest.”

“Yes, Mom,” DG said with another roll of her eyes. “Let me just grab my sketch pad - there’s something I want to show him.”

“You be quick now,” Mrs Gale said, and then turned her back on Harry and Teddy and went into the kitchen and turned her attention to the lemonade she was going to make. Harry followed her silently and leant against the doorframe, half watching her and half watching Teddy out of the window. When they heard DG slam the door as she raced out towards the wind turbines, Mrs Gale flung down her tea towel and span to face Harry.

“Now who d’you think you are, young man? It ain’t time yet. We ain’t heard a single word,” she expressed in a harsh whisper.

Taken aback, it was all Harry could do to keep his bearing. “Ma’am, with all due respect, I don’t know what you’re talking about. After the war in England, I completed my education, paid my respects to Teddy’s parents, then escaped.”

“But you know she’s -”

“Magic?” Harry said tentatively, when Mrs Gale didn’t continue. At the sharp nod of acknowledgement, Harry carried on. “Yeah, I know. It made me curious - she has so much power, but she’s never used it - not even a little bit. I’m guessing she doesn’t know?”

Mrs Gale shook her head sharply. “And until we get the word, she ain’t goin’ to know!”

Harry nodded. “Your decision, I guess. But how old is she? Twenty? How long ‘til her magic gets bored and lashes out? How long is she going to stay here?” He stopped, not wanting to anger his hostess. “I’m sorry,” he apologised. “It’s none of my business. I just wanted to check that she was with someone who knew and could take care of the fallout when it happened - and it will happen, soon.”

“I know,” Mrs Gale dropped her head and wrung her wrists. “But we - me and her Pop - we made a promise. And we’ll keep that promise.”

“I’m looking for a place to call home,” Harry added quietly. “If you want I can stick close by and help you with that.”

“Why?” Mrs Gale turned her back on him and continued squeezing lemons. “I don’t mean to sound rude, but why do you care?”

Harry shrugged and grinned a little. “You’ve heard of the war in England? About Voldemort and the guy who defeated him - the Boy-Who-Lived?”

Mrs Gale nodded.

“His real name is Harry Potter. I am he. And after spending seven years running around trying to save the world I’ve gained something of a hero complex. I moved away to escape the expectations at home, but that doesn’t put a damper my natural desire to help people out and to save them,” he continued in good humour.

At the disbelieving look Mrs Gale shot over her shoulder, Harry raised his fringe to reveal the distinctive white lightening bolt scar that had long since faded from the blood red that it had once been. She saw the thin, jagged line and gasped slightly, she took in the rest of his appearance and asked a question that Harry had not at all expected; “How old are you?”

“How old do you think I am? DG said I was - and I quote - ‘hardly a boy’.”

“You look like you’re in your late twenties, possibly? But there’s a boyishness to your features still, so I’m guessing slightly younger.”

“Nineteen,” Harry told her sadly. “But war ages people prematurely.”

“How’d you end up with a two year old, hmm?”

At the reminder of the rambunctious child, Harry smiled again. “Isn’t that the question of the hour?” he asked chuckling slightly. “I’ve yet to explain to DG and I’m sure she wouldn’t forgive me if I told someone else first.”

Mrs Gale raised her eyebrows, but allowed this escape. “Very well then,” she uttered with a sigh. “Now if you and your British, heroic ways aren’t too proud you can come over here and help with the lemonade.”

Harry gave a low, exaggerated bow, sweeping an imaginary hat from his head and proceeded to talk with an affected British accent for the next ten minutes, before his ‘what-ho’s and ‘spiffing old chap’s forced a reluctant laugh from his hostess’s lips and she freed him from the kitchen to wait on the porch for DG and her father. With only a few words of insisting to help, Harry allowed himself to be shooed outdoors and he sank to the floor to play with Teddy, who delighted in the full attention of his godfather for more than a couple of minutes at a time.

DG did not spend too much longer out by the turbine and when she returned her cheeks were ruddy from the wind that was picking up now and the extravagant, energetic conversation with her father. Mr Gale, too, was looking somewhat pink and Harry smiled at this knowledge. DG reminded him a lot of how he’d been when he was younger. Although he had not had loving guardians and the stubborn, almost childish cheerfulness they shared had matured quickly in him into something quieter and more private because of it, the familiarities were startling and he knew that, if he were to become friends with DG, Harry would soon see her as a younger sister - even if she was older than him.

“And now,” DG said, plopping down into one of the seats with gusto, “you, Mr Potter, must tell me about Teddy before I lose my patience and kick you both out!” she was teasing, he knew, but Mrs Gale was quick to scold her daughter for being so rude. Harry only laughed.

“But of course,” he agreed and, upon seeing the strange looks DG and Mr Gale sent, and the glare from Mrs Gale, he dropped the accent with another short burst of laughter. “Teddy’s parents were killed about two years ago now, in an aeroplane crash coming back from a long weekend’s holiday in Paris. His only remaining immediate family member - his grandmother - took care of him while I finished my education but not long after I graduated she too died. As Godfather I felt I must take on Teddy. It has been a chore at times but well worth the effort, I think.”

As though he knew they were talking about him, Teddy stopped in his playing and toddled over to Harry, pulling on his trouser leg as he often did when he wanted attention. “Daddy,” he cried. “Up! New friends!”

Taking this as a wish to be introduced, Harry showed Teddy each of their host family, saying their name, the toddler repeating it as best he could. Mr and Mrs Gale, both as taken by Teddy as DG said they would be, insisted on being called Hank and Em respectfully. Thus christened by their young guest as ‘Dij’, ‘Hak’ and ‘Mm’ and with the wind picking up further, the group retreated indoors, much to Teddy’s disappointment. After so long in a car he wanted to be outside - the wind was a little matter to one so small who was protected from it by his much taller companions and the various seats and tables.

In spite of his teasing reluctance to help making the lemonade, Harry cheerfully offered his services in aid of dinner without any prompting. Em, who had long since despaired of her husband or daughter ever volunteering, eagerly accepted the help. Although she had initially been exceedingly suspicious of him, as DG and Hank were so friendly and welcoming, instantly liking the young stranger, it didn’t take long for her to warm up to him either. Besides, no one who had willingly taken in a two year old could be a bad person. The whole Boy-Who-Lived thing didn’t hurt either.

Dinner was a cosy affair, everyone all talking at once and Ted gladly making as much mess as possible, by the end of which they had exhausted the poor toddler and Harry lay him down on the couch, borrowing a blanket to smooth over him. Once Teddy was comfortably tucked in, he helped carry the dishes back to the kitchen and offered to clean the dishes. With a persuasive word from Em, Hank joined Harry and it didn’t take long for the two men to set about, chuckling at various anecdotes and not settling on one subject for too long.

“You went through my stuff?!” an outraged DG was heard from the other room and both men paused momentarily in surprise. When the argument continued, their conversation turned to loudly discussing the weather and clattering the dishes as much as possible without breaking them, so as not to hear what was going on, despite both of their curiosity.

There was a serious of thumps, indicating DG’s removal upstairs, and then the slamming of what Harry assumed was her bedroom door. Em appeared in the kitchen doorway looking tired and haggard, so Harry slipped back into the living room, leaving the couple to discuss what had happened in private.

Teddy was sitting upright, with the blanket clutched protectively around him when Harry saw him, and he immediately ran to his adoptive father and hugged his legs very tightly. “Is Dij ok?” he murmured in a half-sleepy, half-scared voice that children waking from nightmares often use.

“She’s fine,” Harry promised, picking him up. “But you know how you get angry at me, sometimes, and shout at me?” The child nodded. “Well DG’s a bit angry at _her_ mummy at the moment, so she shouted. They still love each other, they’re just upset.”

“They trav’lin’?” Teddy asked quietly. In the past week it was always when he had spent too long in the car that he got the most upset and something in his infant brain made the link.

“DG wants to, but her mummy doesn’t,” Harry murmured, feeling guilty about repeating the snatches or argument he’d heard.

But Teddy nodded wisely, as though it all made perfect sense to him now - perhaps it did - and then lowered his head to his father’s shoulder, tucked his thumb back into his mouth and returned into slumber. It was at this point, or a few minutes later, that the lights shorted. A call from Em calmed Harry’s fears a little though - it was just the wind. However, he had grown up around Voldemort and ‘no-such-thing-as-a-coincidence’s and he sent a pulse of magic out to scan the area.

What he found was not good. The storm was made of magic. Harry knew only one person who could control any of the elements - and that was Seamus, with his mother’s fire mage abilities, he too had some control over fire. But this - this was incredible. An elemental mage of great power must have had to force this into being.

But then, to Harry’s horror, he understood exactly how it had come about. For once, the storm was a coincidence, though it’s appearance was not. As eight armed men, one with a small amount of magical power, the others bereft, appeared from nowhere, Harry understood. He’d been lectured often enough by Hermione to know that sometimes it paid to listen to her, and he dimly remembered her telling him about travel storms. They were exceedingly rare and no wizard alive could recount the appearance of one (which at the time Harry thought was absurd - of _course_ not, it was a travel storm, it took you somewhere else. Somewhere that you might not return from) and so many dismissed them as myth.

This, however, was not a myth, and seven of the men did not have nearly enough magic between them to apparate. The storm came as a result of someone or something of great magical power propelling one or more beings not only through space, but dimensions and also possibly time. Much like the whirlwind effect of a portkey, but on a much larger scale, because it was a much larger piece of magic.

This just left the question - what were eight armed men being propelled toward them through space, dimension and time coming for?

Then, remembering Em’s comment on keeping someone’s promise and not hearing a word, Harry realised with a jolt that whoever had sent DG had cared very much for her. And someone who cared that much and knew enough about magic to bind their daughter in such a way… they must not have thought it would have lasted so long, this curious exile. He assumed that some kind of betrayal had taken place - a betrayal that DG’s family had thought they would sort out, but that she best be kept out of the way of. Judging by the fire arms and the furious expressions of the descending men, Harry took a wild stab in the dark and guessed that all _hadn’t_ gone as planned.

“Duck!” he shouted, just as the door was blasted open. And then, all hell broke loose.

Harry’s wand was, as ever, tucked into his ankle holster and it would take a few precious moments to bend and retrieve it. Precious moments Harry needed to protect Teddy. He wasn’t so worried about Em and Hank, both of whom were adults and, from Hank’s cry of, “Longcoats!” had faced these men at least once before.

But with shots being fired in every direction and his back mostly turned to the new arrivals, Harry wasn’t entirely sure what happened next. All he knew was that he had got Teddy, who was terrified but alive and unharmed, and his wand was now in his hand. It was the matter of seconds to knock out the remaining conscious seven (Em had managed to hit one over the head with a frying pan). But, even though the human risk was solved, the hurricane was still heading straight towards them.

DG had emerged, dazed and frightened from her attic bedroom and Harry felt a curious desire to protect her come over him. She was still in her day clothes, but she’d probably cried herself to sleep, judging from the redness of her eyes and the messiness of her hair - now that Harry noticed it, there was something very familiar about that messy mop, though he couldn’t place why or who. Either way, she looked very young and vulnerable and it was second nature to walk up to her, Teddy still cradled in his arms, and wrap her up in a hug.

“It’ll be alright,” Harry murmured and felt her stiff posture relax just a tiny bit.

But the next second, Em and Hank were pushing them towards the door and out into the storm.

“It’s not supposed to happen like this,” Em kept muttering, mostly to herself, and shaking her. Then, glancing up under Harry’s piercing, curious gaze, she told him, “This storm is what we were waiting for, but _this_ was not what we’d hoped.”

DG looked from her Mom, to Harry, and back again. “What’s going on?”

“You have to trust us, Deege,” Hank yelled over the howling of the wind through the now-open front door. “Jump!”

Harry grabbed tight hold of DG’s hand, his other arm curled tightly around the terrified Teddy. The two year old was clutching Harry’s neck just as tightly, but his eyes - now wide and swirling black - were watching the whirlwind with fascination. Harry didn’t have time to worry about Teddy revealing his animagus abilities before DG was shoved forward and he, by refusing to let go of her, soon followed.

As he fell and the world as he knew it disintegrated, he saw Hank’s face in the gleaming, swirling darkness. It was begging him not to let go, to protect DG to the best of his ability. Harry didn’t need to be told to do _that_. And Hank had no idea to the extent Harry could protect his daughter.

v^v^v

Harry was the first to wake of the three of them. He was on his back, staring up into a clear blue sky decorated with not one but two suns. One arm was still curled protectively around Teddy, who was sleeping peacefully on Harry’s chest, one hand still clutching his shirt front tightly. The other of Harry’s hands was holding DG’s smaller, warm one. Neither of his companions were stirring and, in a blinding moment of panic, Harry thought they might be dead.

But then he registered the feel of Teddy’s chest shifting as he breathed, and DG’s hand tightened slightly around his. Her eyelids fluttered and she heaved in a large breath but, like Harry when he woke, did not let out a groan. She stayed staring unthinking at the sky for some time, before the reality of what had just happened hit her and she jolted upright, thrusting Harry’s hand away from her.

“Where are we?” she near yelled, waking Teddy up and causing the two year old to shrink back slightly in fear. “Where have you taken me? Who are you? Where are my parents? Why did you do this? Take me back!”

Harry held up one hand in surrender, keeping the other wrapped around Ted as he sat upright. “I’ve no idea where we are, I had nothing to do with how we got here and I’ve already told you I’m Harry Potter,” he replied, giving up on trying to answer all of her questions individually before he even tried.

DG looked suspiciously at him as though considering whether to believe him, then noticing the small scared form of Teddy clutching Harry’s jacket and hiding his face in his shoulder, she calmed.

“I’m sorry, I-” she stopped and looked to the side, blinking away tears. “The last I saw of my parents I was arguing with them and now they might be dead. I don’t - I wish…”

Harry strode forward and pulled her into a one armed hug. “Hush, it’ll all be ok. Although I’ve not ever seen or travelled by one before, I’ve heard of travel storms. If your parents followed us in and haven’t encountered any more of those men, they are safe.”

“But what if-”

Harry raised a hand, silencing her. “It’s best not to think on ‘what if’s. If I lived in what ifs I’d never have been able to do what I did. And then Teddy and I would never have travelled to America and you’d be here on your own.”

“Sounds like one hell of a story,” she said, smiling weakly and blinking away the first signs of tears that had never spilt over.

“I suppose,” Harry shrugged and grinned. “Of course, I can only tell you if you’re at all inclined to believe in dragons, werewolves, half-giants and magic in general.”

“After my transportation today - travel storm, did you say? - I guess I should be, but this all seems like a very bizarre dream.”

“Would it help if I showed you my wand?”

DG stared at him blankly, wondering if she should be horrified, amused or disbelieving. “Wand.” she repeated. “That better not be a euphemism.”

Harry chuckled and shook his head before he grabbed her hand and started walking through the trees. He summoned his wand to the hand holding Teddy to his hip and waved it a couple of times to emit sparks, for her benefit. Then he proceeded to tell her the story of his life, embellishing some details and skipping over others. Occasionally she would inject a comment or ask a question (“But why should the Basilisk eyes affect a ghost at all?” “He turned Malfoy into _what_?” “Poor Sirius!” “You died? But, how did you get back?”) but mostly she just listened with rapt attention, occasionally squeezing his hand comfortingly.

About an hour after their arrival in this land and shortly after Harry finished his tale they heard distressed cries coming from the woods off to their left.

“No! If I’m a criminal of Azkadelia’s, am I not on your side? An enemy of my enemy and all that? What are you doing with that? No, no, no! Oooow!” the voice was male and obviously only a breath away from sobbing. “I know nothing! I don’t know anything! Please don’t, please…” then, whomever it was let out a piercing scream and DG and Harry, without needing to turn to each other, both broke out into a run, towards the voice.

Harry let go of DG’s hand as they broke into the clearing and whipped out his wand, immediately placing a protective shield around the three of them, luckily in time to divert the volley of arrows that were shot towards them. He quickly took in all that was happening and, seeing a man of about thirty tied face down across a thick wooden log, the skin on his back broken and bleeding, his anger became palpable.

“What,” he said in a furious, carefully measured tone, “is going on here?”

“We are punishing one of Azkadelia’s spies,” one of the short creatures covered in blue face paint answered. “And who are you - another spy?”

“I come from another world,” Harry told them, gazing imperiously down his nose at them. “How do you know this man is a spy?”

The one who had spoken, a leader of some sort, Harry suspected, gasped. “An other-sider! Sent to help us with his magic!”

“Answer my question, before I knock your lights out!” Harry roared at them, stroking Teddy to calm the terrified toddler as well he could whilst still maintaining his fearsome persona.

“He must be a spy!” Blue-face answered. “And if he is not, he is a criminal.”

“I’m not, I’m not!” the man tied down shouted. “I can’t remember who I am, but I’m certain I’m not a spy or a criminal, certain of it!” Then, a moment later, he said the same thing again.

“You see, other-sider? He’s a half brainer.”

Harry had no idea what that meant. He scowled down at the little people for a moment longer, before releasing his shields. He passed Teddy to DG and told her to stay where she was. Then he crossed the clearing to where the man was tied down. He inspected the damaged back and then waved his wand across it a couple of times, muttering ‘ _episky_ ’ until the wounds were sealed up. Then he conjured a cloth and wiped away the blood gently, knowing that the new skin would still be very sore.

Once cleaned, he untied the man and instructed him to sit upon the logs he’d been tied to. Then he summoned the man’s t-shirt, button-down, waistcoat and jacket and handed them back to him.

“You’ll need to be careful of your back for a couple of hours or so, and you may end up with some light scarring, but it should be entirely healthy and usable by the end of the day - although I’d recommend staying away from strenuous activity for a couple of days,” Harry advised.

The man, whoever he was, disregarded the shirt and jacket he’d been about to put on and hugged Harry tightly. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” he said, tears leaking out of his eyes. “I thought I was going to die!”

Harry stroked the stranger’s curly hair and smiled, trying to ignore the hot wire of attraction that tightened in his belly. “I’m sure they wouldn’t have killed you.” He glared over the man’s head at the midgets, daring them to contradict him.

Suddenly, the man went stiff and sat up, forcing Harry to abruptly let go of him. “Who are you?” he demanded. “Where am I?”

It was then that Harry remembered what blue-face had said about this man being a half-brainer. Looking at the man’s head, he saw with horror the zip that went the length of his skull, starting at his forehead. The fastening was loose and Harry could see that there was, indeed, only half a brain there. “Oh, sweet Merlin,” Harry breathed out. “What did they do to you?”

A sudden fear and apprehension entered the other man’s eyes and he withdrew further. “Do you hate me?” he said in a small voice.

“No,” Harry immediately replied. “No, of course not. I think you’re very brave. Will you put the rest of your clothes on and tell me who you are?”

“I’m Glitch,” the man said quietly, pulling his shirt and jacket on quickly without bothering to do either up. “On account of how my synapses don’t always fire right.”

Harry leant forward and reached tentatively for the zip handle and rolled it backward so the gaping hole was shut. “There, now you’re decent. I’m Harry.” He offered his hand to Glitch, who shook it eagerly.

“I’m Glitch,” he said again. “On account of how my synapses don’t always fire right.”

DG opened her mouth and looked as though she were going to say something about the repetition, but stopped when Harry shook his head.

Once Glitch was on his feet, still clutching the hand Harry had offered him to shake, Harry returned his attention to the small people. “I don’t know who you are, who Azkadelia is, nor why you were treating Glitch that way. But by God if this is how you welcome strangers I’m not going to help you!”

There was a dreadful sort of a silence as the little people glanced between each other, wordless messages being sent and received under Harry’s watchful gaze. His hand tightened around his wand in anticipation. However, what happened next was not at all what Harry could have perceived.

A group of ‘longcoats’ - at least that’s what he thought he heard Hank call them - burst into the clearing on horseback, wielding their strange looking guns and yelling about traitors to the crown. Harry did not think for himself, or really for the strange man hanging off his hand, instead his immediate thoughts went to the protection of DG and Teddy. As it turned out, this was precisely the right thing to do in the situation.

Half-brainer he might be, criminal - perhaps, perhaps not - traitor to the crown… well if he wasn’t before he most definitely was now. Glitch, it turned out, was a rather magnificent fighter. He had knocked three longcoats off their horses before they even realised he was there. A fourth and a fifth soon descended upon him on their horses, but he fought them off valiantly and didn’t seem at all bothered by the extra height they had by riding. Harry allowed himself a very brief moment of watching appreciatively, before he was fighting his way across the clearing to the others.

He had cast a basic disillusionment spell over DG and Teddy so the longcoats wouldn’t see them if they stayed still, but he had known the moment he’d cast it that DG was not one to sit still. He could imagine her as a child coming home covered in bruises and scrapes, but grinning broadly because she’d helped someone from the schoolyard bullies. Sure enough, she set Teddy upon the ground, picked up the nearest big stick and began swinging it with fierce, clumsy determination. Harry shook his head in fond exasperation and jumped over to help her.

By the time the leader of the longcoats rode into the clearing, some minutes later, Harry and Glitch and knocked out the rest of the attackers - as well as the little people - and had moved them to opposite sides of the clearing and tied them all up. The horses were grazing contentedly and Teddy was having a magnificent time pulling on his new friend’s crazy curls.

“What has gone on here?” the young man - and he was still young, in spite of the thick wrinkles that lined his forehead and the edge of his mouth - demanded to know.

“My good sir,” Harry said, bowing mockingly in his direction. “My friends and I were taking a gander through these woods when we were attacked first by _them_ ,” he waved distastefully in the direction of the little people, “and then by _them_.” Again another wave, this time to the longcoats. “You’ll have to excuse me, but I was a bit of a hero in my prime and, well, I tend to over do things when I get cross.”

“In your prime?” the rider questioned, “You’re young yet.”

Harry smiled in the way he’d perfected in the months following Voldemort’s death - a tired, heavy smile of a warrior in search of peace. Initially he’d smiled it because it was the only way he knew how. Then he made sure to keep practicing it to avoid awkward questions. Funny what you could get away with when everyone thought they had a reason to pity you. “I’ve already lived through a war, good sir. Apart from the occasional skirmish,” again, a vague gesture at the clearing, “I have no desire to fight.”

The stranger eyed him as though he were a curious kind of bug he was considering whether to squash under his heel or not, then swung himself off the horse. “What’s your name?” he asked.

Something - Harry didn’t know what - told him to use a different surname. “Harry Evans,” he told the man instead. “And yourself?”

“Zero,” the man said finally, “Adrien Zero. I am lieutenant commander of her Majesty Queen Azkadelia’s army of longcoats.”

Harry nodded, as though that made perfect sense to him. For a moment he considered trying to use legilimency on this man, but as before something told him that would be a bad idea. “It’s good to meet you. My apologies for disabling your recruits.”

The man seemed to find this funny, but not in anyway that Harry could understand. “You’re new around here, aren’t you?” Zero asked him.

“I’m from topside,” Harry said, gesturing vaguely, _again_ , only this time to encompass the sky. “Or at least, I fell from the sky, so I presume it was from topside whence I came.” It was then that Harry noticed he’d adopted a very strong British accent again. He could imagine Em whapping him over the head in his mind’s eye.

“The Otherside,” Zero corrected. “How did you get through?”

Harry considered telling the truth for half a moment, before neglecting it. “I was visiting my cousin, sir, when a storm rocked through our house and swept us clean away. Thought it might kill us for a while, but-” he shrugged and grinned ruefully, “-you know how it is.”

“How did you know it was a different world?” Zero demanded to know.

Harry raised an eyebrow - inquisitive one, this. “The two suns gave it away, old chap. Now, if you’d excuse us, we’ll be on our way.”

“On your way where?”

“You ask a lot of questions, don’t you?” Harry shot back, before answering anyway. “Anywhere, my friend. Whole new world to discover and explore. Now if you don’t mind?” He half turned away from Zero, knowing the older man would call him back again.

“One last thing!” - there is was - “Who is your cousin?”

For a moment Harry was tempted to lie again, seeing the look of confusion on both DG and Glitch’s face almost swayed it. But, then he looked at Zero. One man. Well, one man and a horse. One man with not much magic, only two guns and probably a blade or two stashed about his person - what harm could he do to a wizard who’d defeated a Dark Lord? Perhaps Harry’s ego needed a little deflating, but it was just a bit of mischievous fun and if they ended up wanted criminals? Well, what else was new?

“Well, we call her DG, but her full name’s Dorothy Gale,” he paused and grinned blindingly. “Sound familiar?”

Zero’s eyes had widened in surprise, then narrowed in anger. He glanced up and across the clearing to where DG and the others were watching with what was now horrified surprise. Then he glanced back at Harry, hand going to his gun holster. He wasn’t given time to use it though, before he caught the business end of Harry’s wand. The last thing he’d remember before he would wake up tied up with his fellows was a flash of red light.

Harry stuck his wand back in his back pocket, wandered over to the others and cooed at Teddy. “Wasn’t that fun?” he murmured, tickling the toddler’s tummy. “Hmm? Wasn’t that fun and - oh. OK, mister.” He took the toddler from DG’s arms, smiled apologetically and disappeared into the woods for a moment, before reappearing with a happier, much less smelly Teddy. “Right,” he said with a grin. “Where are we off to next then?”

DG shot a glance at all the people who were tied up, then back at him and returned the grin, stepping forward to loop her arm through his. “Dad always told me to ‘follow the Old Road’,” she stage-whispered, winking exaggeratedly. “How’s that sound?”

Glitch, who had been watching them nervously, burst in at that point, apparently unable to hold his tongue any longer. “We’re wanted criminals now! It’ll only take them a short time to get the word back to Big Bad Azka-Dee and then she’ll hunt us down and - and - and hunt us down! And I can’t lose half of my brain again because I only have half left! And you two aren’t really cousins, are you? Because you look much more like brother and sister to me.”

Harry blinked at Glitch’s ramblings, taken aback by the other’s clarity of saying precisely what he was thinking. Then he shook his head and laughed. Putting the wriggling Teddy on the floor to totter around for a moment, he stepped over to Glitch, taking the other man’s hands both in his.

“Glitch,” he said. “I promise that I won’t let anyone or anything hurt you that badly ever again, ok? And if it’s at all possible, I’ll help you find the other part of your brain too. But something tells me that DG here is the key to this mess, so we’ve got to help her first. OK?”

“Me?” DG burst in, seemingly unable to keep her mouth shut for any longer. “Why me?”

Harry let go of one of Glitch’s hands, using his now free arm to swing Teddy back up onto his hip. “You are full to the bursting of magic, Deege, you practically stink of power. Something has got it all locked away inside you. The only person who could place a block like that is someone very powerful. And the only person who would send you to a whole other world, away from these ‘longcoats’ is someone who loved you enough to let you go.”

“I still don’t get why me, though,” she insisted.

Harry sighed and, tugging on Glitch’s hand started walking. “Because no one who has as much power as you do is ever left alone when there’s a war or rebellion going on. They’re either trying to be killed or recruited by both sides.”

DG hesitated a moment, before catching up to Harry and slipping an arm around his waist. “I’ve dragged you into another war again, haven’t I?”

Harry smiled softly at her and bumped hips. “It’s my choice this time. That makes a world of difference, believe me.”

“You were in a war before?” Glitch asked softly.

One look at those dark eyes and Harry decided that telling his story again wouldn’t hurt too much. It was still painful, talking about everything that had happened, everyone who had died, but he’d told the story once already that day and it was… soothing to his soul to be able to talk freely to these people. It was especially soothing to tell Glitch. The man had his own painful past that he was running from, but it was entirely different from Harry’s. There were similarities, certainly, but it was different. He wasn’t talking to someone who already thought they knew the details.

And as he talked, they walked. Harry noticed relatively early on that, continuing as they were, they would end up walking in a big circle, but considering the ease of their talk he considered it time spent well. The best teams were ones that were friends with each other, that trusted each other. A few hours spent getting to know one another whilst Harry started noting the lay of the land could hardly be considered going to waste, especially since Glitch’s stutters grew fewer and further between the more comfortable he became in their company.

It also gave Teddy a chance to warm up to the strangers. He was not exactly a shy child, but in the process of those couple of hours he had gone from clinging tightly to Harry to bouncing excitedly in either Glitch’s of DG’s arms. Which was something of a relief for Harry since he still wasn’t entirely sure of the potency of his magic here and wasn’t willing to test a featherweight charm on his son to find out. None of the stunning spells earlier had _killed_ but that really wasn’t a good way of measuring.

Eventually DG caught on to the fact that they were going round in circles when Harry had to save Teddy from Glitch’s clutches again when the man stumbled over the same log he had done hours before. When she started complaining, however, she caught Harry’s eye and couldn’t help but gape.

“You knew,” she accused, pointing a trembling finger at Harry. “My parents are _missing_ , being chased by _longcoats_ and you let us wonder around in a massive circle for hours!”

“Deege,” Harry murmured, making sure Teddy was secure in Glitch’s arms before going over to her and placing a hand on each of her shoulders. “Listen to me. Your parents know the O.Z.. Weren’t they the ones who told us how to cope with the travel storm? They told me to look after you, not worry about them. They said nothing about trying to track them down, only keeping you safe. You know what that means?”

DG shrugged a little and brought her gaze up from her feet to meet Harry’s eyes. “That they have a plan?” she asked.

“Yup,” Harry agreed cheerfully, then let go of her shoulders and looped one arm through hers and waved Glitch to lead the way. “Probably didn’t involve longcoats, but as we’ve seen neither hide nor hair of the original men who attacked us, nor your parents, I’m going to assume that where the travel storm drops people off is a little - ah - unpredictable. So they are probably perfectly safe right now.”

“Thanks, Harry,” DG held his arm tighter and leant her head against his shoulder for a moment before her head shot up.

“Did you hear that?” she asked.

“Hear what?” Harry and Glitch echoed back.

A yell from somewhere over the rise to their left suddenly sounded and without a word the four of them - Teddy still in Glitch’s arms, raced up the incline to see what had produced the shout.

Beneath them was a small lake with a cottage on its banks. The scene would have been picturesque were it not for the longcoats that were swarming it.

“Those guys are everywhere,” DG murmured, clenching her hand around Harry’s, that she had taken in favour of his arm when struggling uphill.

“Yeah that’s life in the O.Z. these days, tough and tougher,” Glitch responded, wincing as the men below beat up the man of the house, blood dribbling from a cut in the crown of his head.

The man let out a roar, whether in physical or emotional agony was impossible to tell as they could see that a young woman, probably his wife, was pulled from the house and forced to watch as they hit him again. The man fell to his knees and the woman screamed.

“Leave my boy, leave him alone!” she yelled, struggling against the men that held her, but unable to break their grip.

“Mom! Dad!” a young voice cut in, and a boy was next dragged from the house, looking to be only seven or eight years old.

Youth aside, the boy was putting up a good fight, almost breaking free at one point, only to be backhanded sharply across the face so that he fell to the floor. His father roared again, managing to throw a punch before he was once more restrained; his mother weeping, great heaving sobs that allowed only for the occasional cry of “no!” to escape.

Glitch winced as the boy fell, “Even with half a brain I can tell we… we gotta get out of here.” The hand that wasn’t supporting Teddy went to the zipper in his head and toyed with the tag briefly before he let his severely shaking hand fall.

DG didn’t even spare them a glance before she let go of Harry’s hand, crouched down to grab the largest, sturdiest stick she could find, before racing down the hill, yielding it like a baseball bat faced with a potential home run.

“Oh creeps,” Glitch muttered, watching her go. There was a second of hesitation before he handed Teddy over to Harry and he hastened after her, without the benefit of a stick or DG’s fearless courage. “DG, this isn’t your fight!” Glitch yelled.

“Leave them alone!” she shouted in reply, swinging her stick wildly and heading straight for the man who had slapped the boy.

A man who looked shockingly familiar. Now, Harry wasn’t great with recognising faces, and he had already admitted that he wasn’t sure how much control he’d need to exert over his spells to get the same effect he was used to back home, but one thing he was sure of - a stunning spell, no matter how powerful, could not make a man younger, nor grow him a beard. He supposed it might be possible if someone mispronounced the incantation, or did the wrong wand movement, but Harry was very good at stunning spells. Good enough that technically he didn’t need words or a wand to produce the desired effect. So he knew his spell hadn’t done it.

In fact, unless his powers were severely crippled in the O.Z. - which was so unlikely he had a sneaking suspicion the opposite was true - Harry figured it would be another couple of hours before any of the men he’d knocked out would be waking up. It took a good couple of hours without a _finite_ on a normal strength spell. With the situation such as it was, the guys he’d hit could be feeling woozy for days. So it made absolutely no sense that the last of the men he’d hit with that spell had not only regained his full cognitive abilities, but he’d also lost several years and had a sudden growth of facial hair.

Then, it did make sense. Because DG and her stick managed to flail straight through him, the other longcoats and the tortured family vanishing with him. The house fell instantaneously into disrepair and the garden became overgrown. A recording device of some sort, obviously. Magnificent, as well, because Harry hadn’t tasted even the slightest tang of magic in the air.

“What just happened?” DG asked, turning back to Glitch, who stumbled to a stop behind her.

Glitch shrugged, then spotted a wooden pole that hadn’t been present in the projection, a metal device jammed into one side of it. He wondered over to it and eyed it narrowly, DG only steps behind. Harry secured Teddy once more to his hip and also made his way down to the cottage, albeit much slower than his companions so as not to drop his young charge.

“TDESPHTL,” Glitch replied to DG, seemingly without even having to stop to think about it. “A-a-a Tri-Dimensional Energy Stored Projected Holographic Time Loop,” he continued, making a small noise of appreciation as he took in its details. “Nifty little thing.” He paused and blinked, a tiny smile at the edge of his lips as he declared proudly, “Hey! I think I invented it!”

“So it was all fake?” DG questioned, grabbing hold of Harry’s hand again as he joined them.

Glitch shook his head sadly, frowning at the device, as though he were a father disappointed in the antics of a much loved child. “No. It happened. Sometime or another.”

The three of them traded long looks and the echoes of shrill, desperate cries sounded in their individual imaginations. Glitch took a step closer to his new friends, wanting to share the closeness. DG leant her head against his shoulder as she had Harry’s earlier.

“Why would they have it playing over and over again if there was no one here to watch it?” she asked the quiet.

“Well. I think…”Glitch started, then stopped. His expression turned vacant and Harry’s heart broke a little bit. His mind fell back to his fifth year when he had met Neville’s parents. The nothingness behind their eyes, but never quite empty enough for all of the pain to be gone. There was enough of them left to understand that something was missing. Something very, very important. But they couldn’t tell what. But Glitch, Glitch was very much aware of what he was missing, but he struggled on, doing his best to be normal.

Harry let go of DG’s hand and pulled Glitch into a hug, little Teddy caught between them and giggling as he burrowed his face in the many layers of clothing that Glitch wore. Small hands found sensitive ribs and Glitch squirmed away, giggling himself now before he swept Teddy from his father’s arms and tickled him back.

“Nooo!” Teddy squealed, wriggling and laughing and trying to escape. “Sowwy! I’m sowwy!”

Glitch stopped his tickling at the apology and pulled a little on Teddy’s hair, that promptly turned dark brown and curly to match Glitch’s. The two year old giggled a little again and curled up against his chest, little legs wrapping around his waist and sucking on one thumb.

“Guys?” DG called. “Um… what’s that?” she asked, pointing to a metal suit near the lake and pointed towards them. It was rusty and weathered from age, and it was now tilted slightly to one side, rather than the perfect upright they all suspected it had started out as. They all moved closer, Glitch holding Teddy in both arms just in case something jumped out and attacked them.

Tentatively, DG leant forward and knocked four times on the shoulder. They all took half a step back when whatever it was that was inside knocked back, four times.

“There’s someone in there,” DG murmured, utterly horrified at the concept.

“Or something,” Glitch  added, standing on tiptoes to gaze through the astronaut-like screen where the face would be, stumbling back when whoever it was blinked at him. Harry reached out a hand to steady the other man.

“Stand back, I’ll open it up,” Harry told them.

DG looked at him for a moment, before nodding and going to stand by Glitch. “Don’t hurt whoever’s in there,” she instructed.

Harry shot her a look and shook his head. “I will protect you, Glitch and Teddy. If that means hurting someone who’s been trapped in a metal suit for God knows how long, I will.”

She grabbed his hands before he could turn back and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I know I don’t know you very well, Harry,” she murmured, “but you have to let the ghosts of the past go. Voldemort’s dead. You’re not.”

“So many people died, Deege. Ted’s parents were just a couple… I watched people I’d grown up with slaughtered, kids only fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old. I will not let that happen again. Voldemort’s gone, but this world has it’s own power of Dark.”

DG shook him slightly and made a derisive noise in the back of her throat. “You said you thought I was the key? Well back off, Hero, this is _my_ turn. In this story, I’m the chosen one.” It was said half-seriously, half in jest, but it achieved the acquired reaction from Harry, who couldn’t help but laugh softly.

“I’m still not going to let some stranger hurt you or Teddy.”

“I know that,” she replied cheekily, dropping his hands and patting his cheek. “Just try and play by my rules, yeah?”

With a rueful smile and another shake of his head, Harry turned back to the metal prison and inspected it for a moment. He could detect a not inconsiderable amount of magic in it, but it was stale from disuse. A long-term spell, then, that had been cast and left, the caster uncaring as to whether it might decay or not. From what Harry could tell, the spell was a little over a decade old, but despite that seemed only a little ragged around the edges. Hoping against hope that that had been enough to keep the person trapped inside alive and somewhat sane, he muttered a quiet _Alohamora_ and carefully swung the front open.

The man inside was still breathing, and he had knocked back when DG had, so Harry assumed he had retained some of his faculties. He stunk to high heaven and was covered in a thick layer of grime from head to toe, but other than that the spell appeared to have done its job. There had been a fair amount of hair growth, but Harry knew that probably wasn’t due to the spell in its current state, but rather original neglect by the caster.

He groaned, tried to step forward and fell to his knees, Harry immediately at the stranger’s side, holding back hair as he retched and spluttered, eyes blazing from one face to the next, to the world around them. The pupils dilated scarily and Harry swore softly under his breath. He didn’t know how to cope with someone who had gone into shock from being in stasis too long, so his best bet was to keep the man this side of reality.

“Oi, mister!” he shouted in the man’s ears, jerking his head back and pulling him into a sitting position. “Snap out of it! You’re alive. You hear me? Alive! World’s still real, you’re still real, but if you don’t cling to me it might not stay that way, do you understand?”

The stranger nodded his head vigorously, gripping Harry’s elbows and breathing deep, uneven breaths, eyes never leaving Harry’s.

“What’s your name? Can you remember that? You know how to speak, you spent years doing it. What’s your name?”

“Weurgh,” the man tried, then coughed and spluttered, fighting against the urge to retch again.

“That’s it, you’re alive. I know it hurts, but the pain proves it’s all real, ok? Now try again, what’s your name?”

“Why-” the reply was cut off by more coughing and Harry noticed with a pang that fat, salty tears had started to roll down his cheeks.

Then DG was kneeling beside them, wiping away the tears and smiling softly. God knows where she got a handkerchief from, but Harry wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She didn’t say anything, she just smiled and wiped away the grime from the stranger’s face. He was looking at her now, his piercing blue eyes meeting hers seeking answers to questions he probably didn’t even know yet.

“Wyatt,” he said after a long moment. Then he looked back at Harry, coughing a bit more. “Wyatt Cain. I am - was - twenty-eight years old. My wife’s name is Adora and my boy…” he trailed off and more tears sprung up from where the others had been wiped away, but he did not break Harry’s gaze. He shuddered and finally finished, “my boy’s name is Jeb.”

Then the dam broke and he collapsed forward into Harry’s arms, heaving great noisy sobs, his whole body shuddering with the effort. Harry breathed a sigh of relief and wrapped his arms around Wyatt in a tight embrace. He looked to DG, who was still crouched beside him, and Glitch who was standing a few steps away with Teddy resting on his hip. The two year old had buried his head in Glitch’s shoulder, his hair transformed back to the mousy brown that perfectly matched Remus’.

“He’s going to be alright,” Harry told them. “From what I could tell he spent over ten years in… that.” Harry didn’t know any words foul enough to describe the disgust he felt at the metal suit. “I think the magic keeping him alive probably kept him almost entirely in stasis, but I’m going to have to check a few things first. Deege, can you take Ted and try and find some clean clothes? Glitch, can you try and find some soap, scissors and a razor?”

“This is sick,” DG said, standing suddenly. “I can’t believe that someone could do something like that to another human being it’s just…” She, too, didn’t have the words.

“The most imaginative tortures are saved for those who resist Azkadelia,” Glitch spoke up quietly, without even a hint of a stutter. He handed Teddy over to DG and started heading over to the cottage, pausing long enough only to squeeze Harry’s shoulder.

DG’s eyes were glazed over with tears, but she put a game face on as she took the two year old, bouncing him a little and tipping his chin up. “Look at us, hey, Ted,” she said, voice thick and belying the light tone she was trying to hit. “Crying over something that wasn’t our fault. Well you know what they say about spilt milk. Shall we try and find something nice for Mr Cain to wear when he’s feeling a bit better, hmm?” With that she, too, headed towards the cottage.

Once the others were gone, Harry carefully sat Wyatt up. He’d seen the memory, just like the DG and Glitch had. This was a brave man, a strong man. This was someone who had fought against the impossible to try and save his family. He had had a moment of weakness, but now that the shock of reentering the world was starting to wear off, Harry needed to make sure the transition was swift and easy. For Wyatt’s sake, DG and Glitch had to see him as the man he used to be, not the shivering wreck he had just been.

“I’m going to kill him,” Wyatt said roughly, looking into Harry’s eyes again.

Harry shook his head. “No. We’re going to find this bastard and we are going to give him a taste of his own medicine. And I’m going to make sure that the damn spell will keep him alive and well for a far, far longer time than yours.”

Wyatt started shaking again, and this time it was Harry who clasped his arms.

“I can’t help it,” he groaned, coughing around the words again. “What - what’s wrong with me?”

“The spell that was keeping you alive had started to decay. Your muscles might have atrophied a little, but more likely your body’s just protesting severe food and water deprivation. Don’t you worry about that, I’ll have you fit as a fiddle within an hour, you’ll see,” Harry reassured.

Glitch made a reappearance, hovering awkwardly as Harry cut away most of Wyatt’s long hair until it was a more manageable length. He gratefully escaped to make food at Harry’s gentle suggestion. Then with great care, and erecting several privacy wards, Harry pealed off the clothing and the layers and layers of grime until Wyatt was laid bare and clean. Harry knew from experience that this ritual wasn’t just about wiping away the physical dirt. It a lot of good for removing the stains on the soul too.

Harry shaved off the rest of Wyatt’s beard and cropped the rest of his hair short at the man’s request. Then he had cast a quick spell over the clothes DG had bought to make sure they were entirely clean before passing them over. By the time the two of them were done Wyatt was a hat away from being ex-Tin Man Cain again. He could stand and walk on his own again and had stopped having coughing attacks.

“Now all you need is a decent meal and a whole load of water and that should chase the last of your shakes away,” Harry nodded, pleased with himself.

Wyatt rolled first his shoulders then his head slowly, before stretching each of his joints and letting out a heaving sigh. “Great Gale it’s good to move again.”

Harry snorted and started to lead the way towards where Glitch and DG were jokingly fighting about the food they were cooking and entertaining a rather tired-looking Teddy. “Don’t let Deege hear you say that.”

Wyatt - or Cain, now, Harry supposed - frowned. “Why?” he asked.

“She’s DG - Dorothy Gale,” Harry replied, then stopped. He looked at Cain, who stared right back. “Well,” Harry said when they started walking again. “Isn’t that a turn up? So, the significance?”

“Royal family,” Cain muttered back, before they arrived in hearing distance and they both, without verbally agreeing to it, decided not to mention this to DG.

Because, whatever Hank and Em were, they certainly weren’t royalty. Even the most benevolent of aristocrats couldn’t throw off everything that had been engrained from birth when put in a common environment. Which meant one of two things - firstly, that this was a massive mix up and a coincidence, but Harry and long since stopped believing in that. Which left the second option. That Hank and Em weren’t DG’s real parents. What had Em said? “ _We made a promise. And we’ll keep that promise._ ” Harry bit his tongue and forcibly turned his thoughts to the present. There was no use theorising, it could only end up hurting everyone.

When Harry sat down around the fire with the others, Teddy scrambled over and launched himself into his lap. The two year old grinned toothily up at him and snuggled into the warmth of Harry’s body.

“Crazy friends, Daddy,” he said solemnly.

Harry grinned. “I know, little man, but you should be used to that by now.”

Teddy wriggled a little more then settled into a light doze as Harry turned his attention back to the food.

“You need to take only small bites to start off with,” he instructed Cain. “It shouldn’t take your stomach too long to get used to food though, from what I could tell of the stasis spell it was pretty thorough. It essentially kept you awake, but your body asleep.”

“Great,” Cain growled unenthusiastically, hands shaking as he tried not to swallow his bowl of stew in one gulp.

DG and Glitch exchanged uncomfortable looks and shifted on the spot, Glitch twirling one of his curls between slender fingers and DG fidgetting with them hems of her jeans.

“What?” Cain snarled at them after a long moment. “Can’t stand to be near the freak from the tin box who can barely feed himself.”

Harry shuddered as the phrasing brought old, dusty memories back into sharp focus. “I don’t think it’s that,” he murmured. “Cain,” he paused, “I know it’s hard, but they do mean well. Try not to snap.”

DG watched the exchange anxiously and, when Harry had spoken, cautiously put a timid hand on Cain’s knee. “We’ve all lost something. We’re not going to point and laugh.”

There was a moment that wasn’t allowed to stretch quite long enough to be awkward where Cain considered DG. Then, looking around at his other companions as well, seemed to realise something. “Lost something,” he repeated hoarsely. “Or had something taken away?”

Glitch gulped and the hand that had been playing with his hair slip up to fiddle with the tag on his zip. “Yeah,” he agreed. “That sounds about right.”

Harry chirped up, “I haven’t had anything taken away.” He shook is head in mock-despair. “In fact, I think it’s probably because I _haven’t_ lost my sense of adventure that I got myself in this mess.”

Noticing the attempt at lightening the mood for what it was, DG laughed and punched his shoulder lightly. “Sense of adventure or ability to attract trouble?” she teased.

At the word ‘attract’ Harry’s eyes shot across to meet Glitch’s and was delighted to find a pale pink blush on the other man’s cheeks, which only caused him to grin wider. “Oh, you know me, can’t go more than a year with some sort of death threat. Mind you, I think this latest broke the record. It’s been almost two years now!”

“Sounds like you have a story to tell,” Cain said.

“Again?” Harry complained. Seeing that everyone had finished eating, he stood up carefully, propping a sleeping Teddy on his hip and extinguishing the fire. “We need to keep moving, but we can walk and talk. Deege and Glitch can do the talking, though, I’ve already told my life story twice today.”

Cain nodded and stood as well. “Let me just grab some things…” his voice trailed off as he turned to look at the ruined cottage he had once called home. His back straightened and his hands clenched into firsts, but it was proud, unshaking pace that took him to the porch and a box hidden under there. He took a few things out, including a gun, then slammed it shut and nodded towards the others.

“Right, well, I think that our best bet is to get to Central City,” DG said, taking charge now that the chances of some kind of emotional breakdown from any of them and almost vanished. “My parents always talked about following the Old Road, and I’m pretty certain that’s where they were headed.”

A penetrating blue gaze stopped DG from saying anything else and Cain grunted a little in understanding. “We’ll need to get through the fields of the Papay.”

Glitch immediately froze up “P-Papay?” he asked shakily.

“What!” DG demanded to know. “I’ve been tossed into a travel storm, attacked by lawn gnomes and idiots on horse back, how bad can ‘papays’ be?”

“Oh Deege,” Harry groaned, looking at her in disappointment. “You should know by now to never ask how much worse something can be.” He winked at her and DG brought a hand up to cover a giggle.

Cain seemed totally unimpressed with their little exchange. “I’ve seen ‘em gnaw people in half inside of thirty seconds.”

Harry’s grip tightened on Teddy, but otherwise didn’t show any outward sign of fear. “I’ve ridden a dragon. I hate to repeat ‘Hero’ here,” he said with a nod in DG’s direction, “but seriously, how bad can they be?”

The ex-Tin-Man’s eyes blazed with incredulity and he tensed again - it was exactly the reaction Harry had been hoping for. Nothing quite like snapping a soldier back into shape like civilians behaving like idiots. If Cain sensed Harry’s thoughts or intentions, he didn’t let on. Instead he started barking out orders on how to follow him.

“We need to cover some serious distance if we want to get to Central City before suns down,” he added, looking at Teddy in Harry’s arms.

Harry nodded. “I’m sure. Don’t worry about me and Ted. I’ve had heavier burdens to bear for much longer.” Admittedly those burdens had been more figurative than literal, but until Teddy was comfortable around Cain, Harry wasn’t going to be doing any complaining.

It took a surprisingly short amount of time for the five of them to reach the outskirts of the fields of the Papay, DG had only managed to explain up to the point in Harry’s life when he’d found out who Scabbers really was. The story stopped there. There would be no talking - or rather, as little of it as possible, while they crossed this territory. No one had said anything about being quiet and DG and Harry had yet to learn what a Papay actually _was_ , but there was a heavy silence on the land that was tough to break. Harry laughed a little at himself for even treading more softly than he might have done normally.

“Hey Kiddo, little head’s up before you lose yours,” Cain told DG in a husky voice that still hadn’t entirely recovered. He directed the next comment more to the group in general, “runners hate water - probably why they smell so bad -  so keep your noses peeled. When it’s time to run, you’ll know.”

Glitch made a grab for Harry’s hand, pulling it to him so he could hug the other man’s arm. “My sinuses are flaring,” he told Harry quietly, shivering a little. Harry tightened his fingers around Glitch’s, but didn’t say anything in reply. Anxious as he was, Harry knew Glitch could take care of himself. He needed to keep his eyes - and nose, apparently - open so that he could protect Teddy too.

The deeper into the Papay fields they went, the more uncomfortable Harry felt. There were cries now, harsh, animal cries that seemed to worry the others, but it wasn’t fear for his own life Harry felt on hearing them. They weren’t speaking Parseltongue, not by any stretch of the imagination, but there were ‘words’ and ‘phrases’ in what they were saying that were similar enough for Harry to catch the gist of. They were talking about death - not death by killing, by feeding, but death by desperation, by lack of food - and as Harry looked at the fields, fields that looked like dried-up orchards, he had to wonder. The sheer need in the cries cut Harry to the core and his grip on both Teddy and Glitch only tightened with every step.

“What’s that?” DG suddenly asked, a little louder than everyone else would have liked.

Cain jumped forward to stop her from touching it, despite her disinclination to do such a thing anyway. “It’s a predigestive enzyme,” he explained. “The Papay runners use it to tenderise their meat.”

DG gazed at it with a strange expression caught between disgust and curiosity in spite of it. Then her eye was caught by a rather larger example of the enzyme and she made her way over, head tilted to one side as though the difference in angle might help her understand better.

Harry had to stop the inappropriate giggle that surged up his throat at the expression Cain made as - in spite of his protests to carry on - DG and Glitch both stopped to stare at the whatever-it-was.

“There’s someone in there,” DG pointed out, rather needlessly.

“An advanced hunter party must have snared it. We better get out of here before their friends get back,” Cain told them, half turned away from ‘meal’ and tipping his weight from what foot to the other in impatience.

DG had knelt down by now though, narrowed blue eyes making out the form and shape of the prisoner inside. She told him, “we can’t just leave him here.”

Cain huffed. “You snatch dinner from a runner, you better be prepared to become it’s replacement. Let it be.”

Narrowed eyes became wide and pleading, a look that Harry instantly compared to one of Teddy’s. The ‘Oh but pleeease’ one. He smiled a tiny bit and tugged on Glitch’s hand that he still had a hold of, pulling him away from DG and Cain. Then he dropped the hand and wrapped his now free arm around the other man’s waist.

“This place gives me the creeps,” he whispered quietly into Glitch’s curls. “There’s so much pain and suffering here.”

Glitch nodded, hugging Harry and Teddy to him, but not explaining. There was a flicker of comprehension behind dark eyes, but it wasn’t enough for a description about what had happened here.

“The poor thing must be scared to death,” DG said with a pout, leaning over for a closer look again.

“Let’s _go_ ,” the ex-Tin Man tried to insist, turning round.

DG stood up straight and looked directly at him, meeting his gaze full-on when he turned as she spoke. “Hey, can I borrow your razor?” There was no pleading in her tone this time, just a flat out request. Flat enough that it seemed much more like an order than a request. Her expression turned mischievous again once he turned and began to cut through the strange membrane.

“I think Mr Cain has a weak spot for pretty girls,” Glitch told Harry in a quiet, sombre tone that Harry almost believed was entirely serious before he caught the glint in his eye. Harry poked him gently in the ribs, grinning widely.

The thing that burst out of the enzyme took a while to be recognisable as a who rather than a what. It - he - was covered in furs and pelts, some of which were home-grown, so to speak, and others were hide that he was wearing. It didn’t help Cain’s suspicion of the newcomer when the first thing he did was raw loudly enough to shake the branches of the closest trees. No doubt attracting more trouble.

“You want that bad attitude drippin’ out of your ears?” the blonde demanded, pointing his gun squarely between the creature’s eyes.

The stranger immediately quailed back, tucking his hands up under his chin in a defensive posture that already had Harry reaching out to lower Cain’s gun.

Then trouble arrived, taking with it a chunk of Cain’s leg.

The gun was fired, killing the first Papay, but doubtlessly attracting the attention of dozens more. Harry didn’t leave time to think, just grabbed Glitch’s hand in his again and running in the direction they had originally been travelling. Abstractly he noticed the far-off cries turning from ‘ _death_ ’ to ‘ _kill_ ’.

Cain was yelling and limping as fast as he could, but kept stopping to shoot at more of the creatures. Glitch seemed to be doing quite well running on his own, so Harry told him to carry on, to protect DG before turning back to grab the ex-Tin Man who was still spending more time shooting than running. Something that, considering the speed of the Papay’s, was probably not the wisest course of action.

“You daft arse!” Harry yelled at him, grabbing the arm which wasn’t holding the gun. “I didn’t save you so you could get killed!”

“You have Teddy!” Cain returned, running properly now, and sounding as scandalised as he could when so short of breath. “You were in front!”

Harry huffed a laugh, thrilling - rather stupidly he supposed - in the chase. “I have something on my side.” Then he stopped, turned, and cast a wide-spectrum _reducto_. Oh, what he wouldn’t have given to have known _that_ particular trick back when he was twelve and fighting off Aragog’s young. “It won’t hold them back for long,” Harry told Cain, “But it’ll give us time to escape. More time than your bullets at any rate.”

Cain growled in annoyance, but didn’t question him, which was something of a relief, and they raced over to where Glitch and DG had stopped.

“Wrong turning,” Glitch squeaked, staring fearfully over the edge where their latest ‘rescue-ee’ had already leapt.

Harry took each of them in, rapidly calculating. Two full grown males, a young woman and a baby. And himself, of course. There was no way without knowing exactly where he was going that he’d be able to apparate all of them at once. Maybe if it were somewhere familiar… but it was a moot point, he couldn’t do it. Especially not in a land where he wasn’t even sure of his own strength. Looked like that featherweight charm he hadn’t wished to use on Teddy might be the only string to hang by.

“The fall might kill us!” Glitch protested loudly.

Cain snorted, stepping closer to the edge. “Well they definitely will,” he said, nodding to the runners that prowled along the edge of the forest, waiting for Harry’s spell to weaken.

“Do you trust me?” Harry asked them, looking at each of them one by one, each of them agreeing in turn. Harry broke off a sturdy piece of the nearest tree, hissing a fierce warning at the Papay closest, who backed up half a yard. “I’m going to try and cast the spell on all of us, but I’ll concentrate on this so… whatever you do, hold on tight.”

All three grasped the branch that Harry offered, Glitch wrapping an arm around Harry’s waist again as well. Cain took off his hat and tucked in under his arm. DG smiled encouragingly. Harry hoped against hope that the faith they had in him wasn’t misplaced.

“Ready?” he asked.

“On three,” Cain replied.

“One,” DG started.

Then the spell broke, the Papay raced forward once more and Glitch yelled “Three!” before launching all of them off the cliff.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos, as you can imagine, are adored. Flames will be laughed at accordingly. And this isn't my first fanfic by a longshot, so for heaven's sake don't go 'easy' on me or some such rot. (Yes that is rooting for constructive criticism, how did you notice?) I'm English, though, so please don't make a comment about any perceived mistakes unless it's about an American concept. No beta, so I beg forgiveness for all my mistakes. And, as I have posted this on LJ - yes, I know Harry's a c*cky tw*t at the moment. Not to worry, I have plans to knock him down a notch or two ;) Now, I hope you enjoyed and look forward to more soon!
> 
> Much love,  
> Yellow  
> xx


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